Policy advisors push for new forex funds

Chinese central bank adviser Xia Bin is arguing for an “urgent” overhaul in the management of the country’s foreign-exchange reserves, which totaled US$3.04 trillion at the end of March, to invest in strategic sectors and high-yield financial products, the Wall Street Journal reported. Xia made his arguments in a column in China Dealmaker magazine co-authored by Chen Daofu, policy research chief at the Financial Research Institute, a unit of the State Council’s Development Research Center that advises top leaders on economic policy. After putting aside the amount of reserves required to ensure sufficient liquidity in the currency market, Xia and Chen recommend using some reserves to stabilize China’s exchange rate, investing others in areas of strategic importance including high tech, green technologies and gold. The rest would be invested in high-yielding financial products, with China’s sovereign wealth fund leading the effort. The proposal is in line with a recent report by Caixin Media, citing unnamed sources, that the central bank is planning to set up several new funds to invest forex reserves.